Diagnosed as manic, confused

[KelseyK92]

Hi there, I recently had a mental health assessment and they diagnosed me as manic, I thought that I had OCD, anxiety, paranoia, hypochondria. They said that I'm not depressed but that I'm manic, what is manic? I'm so confused, they never said bi polar manic? So am I a maniac? :( I'm so upset by this, maybe I'm overthinking it. Now I have to go to a 2nd assessment for pills, I'm assuming antipsychotics. I thought that maniacs are violent, I wouldn't even want to hurt or kill a bug let alone a person. I just have very fast racing thoughts and mind chatter and stuff like that. Can someone who is also been diagnosed as manic describe to me what it is and maybe send links? I'm so confused by it and it's making me feel upset like I'm a weirdo

[Oosh]

It doesn't mean you are a maniac or a weirdo :)

It just means, like you say, racing thoughts, euphoric moods, symptoms like that. Just google mania and you'll find a few descriptions.

I've not suffered from that in particular. Hopefully someone with first hand experience will drop in and give some more insight.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mania

[swgrl09]

Mania has taken on a bad connotation over the years, but being manic does NOT make you a "maniac." Mania is usually a part of bipolar and I am sorry they did not explain this to you. When people are in a manic state, they tend to be euphoric, not sleep for extended periods of time, sometimes have racing thoughts, feel like you can do anything, etc. Then eventually the person will crash and possibly experience depression. There are two versions of bipolar and bipolar I includes mania. Bipolar II does not always have manic phases.

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder-in-adults/index.shtml?rf

[MyNameIsTerry]

Mania, as swgrl says, is normally one of the 2 elements seen in bipolar. However, we use a different diagnostic manual in the UK (WHO ICD, currently ICD-10) so we may have some different classifications so I've posted the Manic Episode category below for you to see if it makes any sense to you:



F30 Manic episode
Three degrees of severity are specified here, sharing the common underlying characteristics
of elevated mood, and an increase in the quantity and speed of physical and mental
activity. All the subdivisions of this category should be used only for a single manic
episode. If previous or subsequent affective episodes (depressive, manic, or
hypomanic), the disorder should be coded under bipolar affective disorder (F31.-).
Includes: bipolar disorder, single manic episode
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F30.0 Hypomania
Hypomania is a lesser degree of mania (F30.1), in which abnormalities of mood and
behaviour are too persistent and marked to be included under cyclothymia (F34.0)
but are not accompanied by hallucinations or delusions. There is a persistent mild
elevation of mood (for at least several days on end), increased energy and activity,
and usually marked feelings of well-being and both physical and mental efficiency.
Increased sociability, talkativeness, overfamiliarity, increased sexual energy, and a
decreased need for sleep are often present but not to the extent that they lead to
severe disruption of work or result in social rejection. Irritability, conceit, and
boorish behaviour may take the place of the more usual euphoric sociability.
Concentration and attention may be impaired, thus diminishing the ability to settle down to
work or to relaxation and leisure, but this may not prevent the appearance of
interests in quite new ventures and activities, or mild over-spending.
Diagnostic guidelines
Several of the features mentioned above, consistent with elevated or changed mood and
increased activity, should be present for at least several days on end, to a degree and
with a persistence greater than described for cyclothymia (F34.0). Considerable
interference with work or social activity is consistent with a diagnosis of hypomania,
but if disruption of these is severe or complete, mania (F30.1 or F30.2) should be
diagnosed.
Differential diagnosis. Hypomania covers the range of disorders of mood and level of
activities between cyclothymia (F34.0) and mania (F30.1 and F30.2). The increased
activity and restlessness (and often weight loss) must be distinguished from the same
symptoms occurring in hyperthyroidism and anorexia nervosa; early states of
"agitated depression", particularly in late middle age, may bear a superficial
resemblance to hypomania of the irritable variety. Patients with severe obsessional
symptoms may be active part of the night completing their domestic cleaning
rituals, but their affect will usually be the opposite of that described here.
When a short period of hypomania occurs as a prelude to or aftermath of mania (F30.1 and
F30.2), it is usually not worth specifying the hypomania separately.

F30.1 Mania without psychotic symptoms
Mood is elevated out of keeping with the individual's circumstances and may vary from
carefree joviality to almost uncontrollable excitement. Elation is accompanied by
increased energy, resulting in overactivity, pressure of speech, and a decreased need
for sleep. Normal social inhibitions are lost, attention cannot be sustained, and there
is often marked distractability. Self-esteem is inflated, and grandiose or
over-optimistic ideas are freely expressed.
Perceptual disorders may occur, such as the appreciation of colours as especially vivid (and
usually beautiful), a preoccupation with fine details of surfaces or textures, and
subjective hyperacusis. The individual may embark on extravagant and impractical
schemes, spend money recklessly, or become aggressive, amorous, or facetious in
- 96 -
inappropriate circumstances. In some manic episodes the mood is irritable and
suspicious rather than elated. The first attack occurs most commonly between the
ages of 15 and 30 years, but may occur at any age from late childhood to the seventh
or eighth decade.
Diagnostic guidelines
The episode should last for at least 1 week and should be severe enough to disrupt ordinary
work and social activities more or less completely. The mood change should be
accompanied by increased energy and several of the symptoms referred to above
(particularly pressure of speech, decreased need for sleep, grandiosity, and excessive
optimism).

F30.2 Mania with psychotic symptoms
The clinical picture is that of a more severe form of mania as described in F30.1.Inflated
self-esteem and grandiose ideas may develop into delusions, and irritability and
suspiciousness into delusions of persecution. In severe cases, grandiose or religious
delusions of identity or role may be prominent, and flight of ideas and pressure of
speech may result in the individual becoming incomprehensible. Severe and
sustained physical activity and excitement may result in aggression or violence, and
neglect of eating, drinking, and personal hygiene may result in dangerous states of
dehydration and self-neglect. If required, delusions or hallucinations can be
specified as congruent or incongruent with the mood. "Incongruent" should be
taken as including affectively neutral delusions and hallucinations; for example,
delusions of reference with no guilty or accusatory content, or voices speaking to the
individual about events that have no special emotional significance.
Differential diagnosis. One of the commonest problems is differentiation of this disorder
from schizophrenia, particularly if the stages of development through hypomania
have been missed and the patient is seen only at the height of the illness when
widespread delusions, incomprehensible speech, and violent excitement may
obscure the basic disturbance of affect. Patients with mania that is responding to
neuroleptic medication may present a similar diagnostic problem at the stage when
they have returned to normal levels of physical and mental activity but still have
delusions or hallucinations. Occasional hallucinations or delusions as specified for
schizophrenia (F20.-) may also be classed as mood-incongruent, but if these
symptoms are prominent and persistent, the diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder
(F25.-) is more likely to be appropriate (see also page ??).
Includes: manic stupor

F30.8 Other manic episodes

F30.9 Manic episode, unspecified

Includes: mania NOS



As you can see, there are many elements of these that could apply to us as anxiety disorder sufferers. In fact, some of them are also found in Personality Disorders as well.

I know I have periods where I find myself more positive, will spend more easily, will be less evasive of certain situations (even feeling less threatened in a potentially threatening situation) but whilst I feel I could go without sleep all night, it will just be a little less for staying up which is not like someone with real mania.

So, perhaps its not as bad as it first sounded? Only psychotic mania is the real extreme form and I would imagine you wouldn't be attending an appointment for that, you would be being reviewed due to your behaviour raised by others.

You certainly aren't a "maniac". I think you are thinking more of someone experiencing psychotic episodes.